


Origin Story

by Miscellany



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien/Human Relationships, Canon Compliant, Fix-It, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-06 16:45:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16391411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miscellany/pseuds/Miscellany
Summary: ...right now we want to avenge people, which is why we want to join the Avengers. If we can't save the Earth, we will avenge it. It was on your website," Venom added accusingly.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I use 'we' and 'they' for Venom only when referring to the symbiote and Eddie as a unit. Hopefully the pronouns don't get confusing.

Eddie didn't like Tony Stark so Venom was predisposed not to either. Stark was too fond of the limelight, he played hero and thumbed his nose at Congress for the exact same reason he gave - because it was fun for him. What would happen when he got bored of acting the part of the savior of humankind was a question that wouldn't please the advertisers of the Daily Globe.

Eddie tried to sniff out a story about Stark anyway, but he had little free time and not any leads other than a faint suspicious gut feeling. People like Stark didn't have changes of heart as dramatic as this. Not even after what he must have gone through in captivity.

Eventually there was the Sokovia destruction - carried out by extremely advanced robots who happened to look like distant cousins of Stark's armor - but by then Eddie was in San Francisco and in love and too busy with his full plate of investigations to give Stark's surprisingly long-lasting superhero saga any more than a passing thought.

And that's how it went up until 3 weeks ago.

Not that Eddie had started thinking more about Stark then. It was Venom's idea to come here, in this new but familiar city, to look for Stark. No, instead of taking a renewed interest in Stark, Eddie stopped caring about a lot of things that had been really important to him before. Like the job - who cared about the hazardous levels of lead in the drinking water when half of the world just went poof. Or the endless dilemma of whether he wanted to try to get Anne back because she seemed so much happier now she had Dan to come home to and Eddie as a friend and Dan was a genuinely decent, likable guy - because there was no more Dan, and no more Annie.

So Venom did a lot of the thinking and functioning for them for a while.

It wasn't so bad at first because people needed help and that was one thing that really mattered to Eddie still. There were children whose parents had vaporized in the middle of dinner to get to authorities, there were looters and robbers and opportunistic gangs and people who just snapped and started shooting passers-by because why not?

Venom ate so much he almost got sick and Eddie didn't mind, not really, and that made Venom worry. He regurgitated half-chewed boots and belts, and a messenger bag and a couple of phones on a rooftop under the curious glances of a few pigeons too stupid to fly away, then slunk back to their apartment and stretched out on the floor in front of the TV to digest.

He watched a lot of news.

He found out that The Situation Was Very Dire. He found out that Steps Were Being Taken To Address The Situation. People repeated phrases like Our Brave Nation a lot. Eddie's phone made noises but neither of them paid attention.

Eventually Venom found out about the Avengers. He had known of them before, of course, because Eddie had known, but now it was different. People were asking, yelling, where were the Avengers? Where was Iron Man? His AI directed armors were everywhere and his See-Oh was giving interview after interview in a voice very similar to the one Eddie used when Venom was being difficult, but there was no Tony Stark. He'd been carried away by a ship Venom knew was very bad news and hadn't been heard from since. Were the Avengers at fault here? Were the people who had caused them to split and go underground to blame? Was this God's punishment for abortions, Canada and miniskirts?

Then Tony Stark came back just when Venom was running out of chocolate. It wasn't a pressing problem, he still found more than enough bad people to eat on his occasional stalkings through the city, but chocolate was tasty and less messy than heads if you wanted to munch in front of the TV.

To Venom, Tony stark looked not worth it. His tough leathery skin was stretched on muscles as dry and chewy as jerky. His eyes were as hollow as Eddie's in the mirror. Nobody seemed to know how to welcome him - as a hero, a man who failed when failure was unacceptable, or both.

Venom thought about Tony Stark's Avengers, and Eddie, and Anne, and the Earth. Then he nudged Eddie's mind with his own and asked him for a way to go to New York quieter than a plane.

It took them a while to get there but Eddie was around more often, so Venom didn't mind. New York itself unnerved them, Venom because it was new, unexplored territory and Eddie because it was a minefield of Annie-memories that tripped them up and exploded in their face whenever they went.

So it was still mostly Venom who crawled over the skylight of Stark's penthouse and knocked on the glass with one curved talon to get the man's attention.

Stark was at a workstation, looking smaller but more there than he did on the TV. His head snapped up to look at Venom too quickly. Venom didn't like it when prey was too quick. But then if all went according to plan Stark wasn't to be prey.

" **Let us in,** " said Venom. Globs of saliva fell on the pristine window, smearing Venom's view of Stark somewhat.

There was a long second of nothing but Stark must have heard because the skylight hissed open under Venom's bulk. Venom slipped in through the gap impatiently and dropped to the room below.

The first thing he noticed was that Stark didn't smell scared.

"I'm all stocked with girl scout cookies but I could make a donation. Your toothpick bill alone must be something," said Stark.

There was a silence. Venom wondered if they were expected to laugh. It wasn't a funny joke, not like Venom's were, but laughing at jokes was expected behavior and Venom wanted to show Stark they could act in accordance to the rules of human society. On the other hand, Venom's laugh wasn't very reassuring. But then the moment must have passed because Stark said, sounding like Eddie did after a long workday, a longer hunt, and a stop at the shop for snacks.

"What do you want?"

" **We want to be an Avenger** ," answered Venom quickly.

"That's great," said Stark. "I don't. Get out."

That took Venom aback. He'd expected panic, perhaps a fight with the tin can legion, and Eddie had expected having to hold Venom back from eating Stark. Neither of them had expected this, this... disinterest.

" **Why not**? he asked belligerently. Stark continued to smell of nothing but coffee and suicidal lack of self-preservation. Venom was starting to wonder if there was something seriously wrong with him.

"Because I suck at it," said Stark, just as calmly as he'd conducted the whole conversation. 

" **What, avenging**?"

Stark shifted from foot to foot, for the first time looking like he wanted to be somewhere else.

"Saving people."

" **We don't want to _save people_** ," explained Venom patiently. " **I mean, we do in general, but right now we want to _avenge people_ , which is why we want to join the _Avengers_. If we can't save the Earth, we will avenge it. It was on your website,"** he added accusingly.

Tony Stark stared at him. Eddie was good at reading people and thus so was Venom, but that look was incomprehensible to them both.

"Who do you wanna avenge then, Jaws?"

It was Venom's turn to fidget. He crouched on Stark's gleaming, unnerving floor, a deep ancient instinct telling him he stood out too much on the pale tiles, that he should hide. He ignored it along with Stark's too knowing eyes.

" **Anne. Dan. One-third of Mrs. Chen's family, because she mourns even though she keeps repeating she was really very lucky compared to most. All good people. All bad, fat people with delicious brains. All of my people this must have happened to. Anne.** "

He wasn't stupid. He was a loser, but not a stupid one, which had made it worse for him back home. The Mad Titan had found a way to cull planets without ever setting foot on them, and Venom's planet _teemed_ with life. Less so now, he imagined. And for all that he didn't fit there he didn't want them dead.

Stark made a step towards him, then another, until he was within reaching distance.

"We always used to make it so no actual avenging was needed. So I've never done this part."

Venom let his tongue out to taste the air. Stark's sincerity and exhaustion was dissolved in it along with the barest hint of curiosity. Venom slithered closer. Stark's eyes flicked over his teeth gratifyingly and the taste of curiosity thickened. Unbelievable.

" **Well then,** hissed Venom, " **we can figure it out together.** "

He offered Stark their hand because the silent, observant space Eddie occupied right now prompted it. One last, tiny test. Stark took the dare, took Venom's hand and then raised his other hand up to cradle it. Whatever it had looked like from afar, his skin was warm and alive to the touch.

"Now that the important part's out of the way, a few details. What the hell _are_ you, Jaws, and what was that about brains? You're not a zombie alien, are you?" asked Tony Stark, not letting go of the writhing, gelatinous skin that changed shape under his palms.

Venom's perpetual grin widened and mellowed of its own accord, suddenly bolstered by Eddie's underneath.

Stark was nothing like they thought (remembered). Stark was interesting.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was absolutely bowled over by the reception the first chapter got. I've been walking around like a dude slapped with a wet wish these last couple of days. I can only hope I can keep writing Tony/Eddie fic that you guys enjoy, and here's my next offering.

A seven-foot alien bulging with muscle and bristling with teeth sat at Tony's kitchen-island inhaling chocolate powder packets pried out of Tony's artisanal coffee machine.

"Bad news on the scan, boss," Friday said in the ear piece Tony had swiped surreptitiously on the way out of the workshop. "I can't get anything but a surface reading and even those results are variable. Composition is unknown; weight has been fluctuating between 260 and 380 lbs. I'm afraid that's as far as we're getting without tissue samples."

Tony's new... team mate didn't stop crinkling and gulping so it was at least clear his hearing wasn't that great.

"Anything else I need to know, besides the brain and chocolate thing?" Tony asked him. He felt a little woozy and he had to brace his elbows on the counter to hide it. He hadn't slept in sixty hours.

The alien shrugged, a too human movement that didn't suit it, and went on licking the last few specks of chocolate off the plastic packet. Its tongue peeked out for a moment before retracting.

"I'd like to run a few tests on you," said Tony.

"No tests."

"Yes tests if you really wanna join the superhero club. Making the Avengers safer and more lethal is what I do, but I need to know what I'm dealing with."

Not that he would necessarily be doing that again. Not without leaving himself a failsafe or two. He'd learned that lesson well and good the first time he'd had to fight the people whose costumes and gadgets he'd enhanced.

The alien didn't seem too thrilled at the prospect though.

"We're lethal enough."

Tony took in a sharp breath. His fingers twitched to grab his forearm but he didn't let them. The memories he couldn't stop, the weightless realization of insignificance he'd had in space, Tony's own, the Chitauri's, all microbes suspended in a vast, indifferent vacuum that someone out there wanted to make that much colder.

But even that was preferable to the feeling of failure, so much worse, not even in the moment the kid flew apart in his hands but in everything that came after, having to trudge over to the Guardians' ship and learn to work it with Peter’s ashes under his nails, coating his skin, bitter on his tongue. Having to plan with Nebula when the unthinkable had happened and they both knew they weren't worthy of living through it precisely because they had lived through it, they hadn't succeeded and they hadn't given their lives trying, hadn't saved their loved ones and hadn't joined them. The journey back and the uncertainty over who'd made it and who hadn't. Returning to a ghost town of a planet and and and... it never ended.

"You don't know what we're up against," Tony said quietly. It wasn't an accusation, he was stating a fact. "If you knew what Thanos was capable of you wouldn't refuse any advantage over him."

The alien was still, perhaps considering. His cloudy eyes and smooth mask of a face betrayed none of his thoughts.

"All right. You can try to make us better."

Tony relaxed a fraction. "Hey, don't do me any favors here, Count Chocula. Not like everybody wants me for my brain, including, apparently, you."

The alien huffed dismissively and it was so weird. If he were going to continue acting so human one moment, alien the next, Tony might be looking at metaphorical whiplash.

"Except me. Your brain smells singularly unappetizing," the alien replied, almost apologetically, as if he thought Tony ought to be offended. "And our name is Venom. Not Count Chocula. Not Jaws. If you want, you can call us handsome."

Tony shook his head, amused, and the room wobbled around him. This time he couldn't hide the moment of weakness, and the alien - Venom - tilted his head like a cobra about to strike. Except he didn't attack, only a clawed hand pointed at Tony accusingly before withdrawing to the alien's side.

"You need sleep. You'll be easy prey for anyone like this."

"Oh yeah, a little lost lamb, that's me," Tony said, and smirked up at the watchful mask as he got to his feet slowly. He'd done the same to Nebula, baited and prodded at her until the rust bucket they were stuck on reached her drop point, but to no avail. Tony wasn't the one she'd longed to kill. "Want to give it a try, handsome?"

He was ready enough, the new batch of nanites had a reaction time just under 0.3 seconds and Friday was on full alert. But it took two to tango and Venom only grew very still and a little vacant, as if he were listening to a voice only he could hear.

"So it's true that you'd flirt with anyone..." he said, and took advantage of the moment Tony's momentary speechlessness - because that wasn't flirting, that was playing conversational ball, and in any case Venom had started it - to lope out the door and down the corridor with, by the sound of it, all the care of a stampeding elephant.

Tony shook his head and slowly ran a hand through his hair. Things would be so much simpler if he could believe he'd finally lost his mind.

"What a day, Fri. What is he doing now?"

"Making a nest in one of the guest bedrooms, boss."

"Do me a favor and order a metric assload of chocolate, will you?"

"Already on it, boss." 

"You're a literal life-saver."

For a moment Tony pondered going back to the lab, but now that he was alone the last reserves of juice that had been propelling him were swiftly running out. There was no choice but to head to his own bed and try to make some use of it.

Friday lit the lights for him along the way, and Tony had the sudden urge to talk, less to fill the silence and more to quiet the buzzing of his mind.

"What do you think about this then?"

"It wouldn't be the first time you teamed up with aliens," she answered just as Tony shut his bedroom door and slumped against it. He hadn't felt exactly unsafe before, but now it was like his body thought it had permission to unwind. He managed to extract himself from a sufficient number of clothes before flopping backwards on top of the covers.

"Compared to that guy they were gremlin levels of dangerous. Can you imagine what he'd turn into if I fed him after midnight?" he told Friday once she shut off the lights.

"Couldn't hazard a guess, boss," said Friday, prudently not pointing out that it was long after midnight already. God, even Tony's AI had learned how to manage him. "Still, war makes for strange bedfellows."

"I really wish you hadn't used that wording, Friday."

"Sorry, boss," said Friday, not sounding sorry at all.

But Tony was already drifting off and there was no opportunity to order Friday to wake him up should the extraterrestrial monster start prowling around the house.

He slept for a time and jerked awake from a nightmare that didn't feature rows and rows of overlapping teeth because a brain-eating extraterrestrial monster couldn't hold a candle to the horrors haunting Tony Stark, before mercifully passing out again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As before, I welcome constructive criticism and I'll consider any tagging suggestions.

**Author's Note:**

> I welcome constructive criticism and I'm open to suggestions for tags.


End file.
